Florence: The Bargello Museum (Museo Nazionale del Bargello)

Описание: Take a complete, annotated tour of The Bargello. Everything below, and more, can be found in the closed captions.

The Bargello Museum is one of the three, must see museums in Florence, along with The Accademia and The Uffizi. It has the finest collection of Renaissance Sculpture in the world.

Michelangelo’s statue is referred to as an Apollo or David. The question is whether he is reaching for his quiver or his sling. I find it doubtful that he would sculpt such a modest David, considering his past accomplishment.

Michelangelo’s first free standing sculpture was designed to be something a Roman would have carved. He went a step further depicting a Bacchus that looks decidedly tipsy.

Brutus looks rather dour from head on. By moving around it we see someone with an expression more of self-satisfaction.

In The Pitti Tondo, the head of The Madonna breaks free of the ordinary Tondo format.

Sansovino has a much more traditional take on Bacchus showing him heroically embracing his joy of wine.

Donatello’s predella for his St. George was the first use of schiacciato (shallow relief) and is the first example of single point perspective in sculpture. The relief is less than an inch deep. His relief and its incisions depict a sense of depth, unsurpassed until his own “Feast of Herod” bronze relief for the font of the Baptistery of Siena. Built for a niche in The Orsamichele, a copy stands in its place.

Luca Della Robbia invented the process of glazed terra cotta. He and his heirs produced Christ children that are the most delightful and realistic depiction of children in The Renaissance. Maybe he played with his kids instead of spending all of his time in the studio.

Why is John The Baptist always so gaunt? It seems as if he hadn’t seen a proper meal until the feast of Herod, where it hardly would have done him any good.

Bertoldo di Giovanni was Michelangelo’s only sculpture teacher, though he did not work in marble, he studied under Donatello. As the head of The Medici Sculpture Garden, he died when Michelangelo was only 16.

Donatello’s first David was planned for a top buttress of The Duomo but like Michelangelo’s, it was never placed there.

His sumptuous bronze David is the first free standing statue made since antiquity. It shows a beautiful adolescent with striking female features. Commissioned by Coismo de' Medici, It originally stood at the entrance of The Medici palace until the family’s exile. The feather of Goliath’s helmet hints at Donatello’s sexual preference, making the bronze quite controversial.

In the left corner we have Lorenzo Ghiberti and in the right Filippo Brunelleschi. In 1401 The Calimala Guild announced a competition for a set of bronze doors on the north side to complement the doors of Andrea Pisano’s from the 1330’s on the south.
The competition was to make a single panel depicting the sacrifice of Isaac within the quatrefoil form. These two finalists were barely in their twenties.

Ghiberti’s panel is more graceful. Look at the figure of Isaac, yet more conventional. Brunelleschi’s was much more modern, look at the angel physically stopping Abraham from going through with the deed. This is a much imitated device used throughout the history of art. Ghiberti won the competition and Brunelleschi was never heard from again, except for the building of some churches and that little dome atop the Duomo. It took Ghiberti 25 years to complete the doors. When they were finished, another set was ordered, ensuring him a steady salary for the next 25 years.